The Playgirl magazine cover boy told the CBS Early Show Friday he regrets issuing a statement in which he apologized to Sarah Palin after he was briefly engaged to her daughter (and his baby’s mother) Bristol in June.

“I don’t really regret anything,” Johnston, 20, told CBS. “But the only thing I wish I wouldn’t have done is put out that apology ’cause it kind of makes me sound like a liar. And I’ve never lied about anything. So that’s probably the only thing. The rest of the stuff I can live with.”

Johnston said he only agreed to put his name on the apology in the first place to placate Bristol, who at the time he was engaged to.

Johnston and Sarah have feuded in the media on- and off- again, hitting a fever pitch last October when Levi claimed that Palin would use the term “retarded” when referring to her son Trig, who has Down Syndrome. Sarah Palin, returning the fire, mocked Johnston’s show business aspirations, calling him “Ricky Hollywood” in an interview with Oprah Winfrey last year.

“I really don’t think it’s about qualifications,” Johnston said of his merits as a candidate. “It’s really about, you know, the people liking you and believing in you … obviously, you want people’s votes, and at the end of the day, it is kind of popularity.”

Johnston also discussed Bristol’s upcoming stint on Dancing with the Stars, noting that she’s just as hungry for the limelight as he is.

“I don’t think I’m any more obsessed with making a career out of this than she is… obviously, she’s doing Dancing With The Stars,” he said. “I wouldn’t say I’m obsessed with [fame.] I’m just taking the opportunities as they come.”